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DIMAPUR — Commemorating the ‘International Women’s Day’ and in an effort to make women self-independent through financial inclusion, a panel discussion was organised by the Women Entrepreneurs Network Nagaland (WENN), in collaboration with National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) at Espace in Dimapur on Friday.
The topics included finance, legal matters, gender, the culture of hard work and supporting each other with Phutoli Chingmak, managing director of Eleutheros Christian Society (ECS); Tiakala Ao, chief general manager of NABARD; and Dr. T Limanochet, principal of City Law College, as the panelists.
Dr. Limanochet, who is also the legal advisor of the National Domestic Workers Movement (NDWM), Nagaland region, while responding to query from the moderator Anungla Zoe Longkumer on land holding system in the state, stated that customary law has been practiced since time immemorial with every village and tribe practice different from one another.
"There is a need to learn and understand why customary law is there. Any imbalance in the society is not good for us and I strongly believe that we should pursue for truth," he said.
According to him, women's rights are human right saying, “It is not necessary that we should support only men or women but we should support truth. We should understand the benefit and burden sharing while there is a need to address this issue as well.”
Chingmak recounted the initial year starting ECS Easy Now, where women had come at their door to even borrow an amount of INR 2, INR 10 and a woman losing her infant child due to financial problem.
"Women are so poor that they don't even have minimum amount to survive and have to find way to take a loan," she lamented while asserting "If women can know how to save they will also know how to spend. But when you earn never spend beyond your earning."
Banker Ao acknowledged that as a kid she had never imagined that she will be in the financial institution as she wanted to an explorer.
"You grow up and reality hits you. To be an explorer you need money to explore places. I was actually trying several other avenues but fortunately got into NABARD, which was one of the best things that happened to me," she said.
On being asked if she had faced any challenges working in a financial institution which are mostly dominated by men, she responded saying, "Our organisation is one of the most inclusive organisations so I did not face any setback. We also have lot of sensitisation programme for male colleagues so that has been received well and encouraging."
Ao also pointed out that women themselves downgrade the others while also stereotyping the kind of job that women do.
There was also a WENN bazaar pop-up with thirteen stalls presenting a variety of products for sale ranging from food, textiles, handicrafts, jewellery and medicinal drink.